Stylish, but stale
Written: Jun 06 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: look interesting, stay on your head
Cons: poor sound reproduction and functional design
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| qibo's Full Review: Sony MDR-G72LP Consumer Headphones |
Sony's MDR-G72LP headphones are nice-looking, but their sound quality leaves a lot of room for improvement.
I recommended these, never having tried them, to my spouse, to replace the worn-out ear buds that came with her portable radio. They're working out okay for her, in that they let her listen to the news without crushing her hair or irritating her ears. Despite her satisfaction, having finally auditioned them myself, I regret my recommendation enough to write an opinion here.
Let's talk about the good things, first. This is a reasonably comfortable, light-weight pair of headphones that won't go inside your ears or crumple your hair. They also seem to stay on fairly well, and they're not bad-looking. The cable is of a useful length (many are too short in this price range). Unfortunately, the fun stops here.
These headphones are not suitable for the reproduction of music. They're fine for listening to AM radio broadcasts or FM news or talk radio, and that's as far as they go. The bass and treble ranges are severely attenuated, and the mid-range is, strangely, muffled and raspy at the same time. There is, on first hearing, a reasonably airy and spacious quality, but the more one listens, the more two-dimensional and artificially wide the stereo field seems. Despite having fairly large diaphragms and magnets for headphones in this price range, these phones do not reproduce detail well, only managing to keep up with the grossest dynamics.
I auditioned these headphones with a variety of material, from classical solo instruments, to ensembles, to vocal music, jazz, and pop. The jazz recordings I tested sound the best out of all. The headphones lacked the detail reproduction and dynamic range necessary to produce an enjoyable classical listening experience. I was surprised at how poorly the pop program faired with these headphones; the bass response was too weak for satisfying listening.
Another problem I encountered was that the head band would ride down to the nape of my neck and brush against my clothing, transmitting quite a bit of mechanical noise into the ear pieces. The design of these headphones is such that the head band is not adjustable, so I was not able to compensate for this problem. The mechanical noise issue would also become apparent when leaning back in a chair with a head rest, lying down, and so on. Function definitely loses out to form with these headphones.
I worried for a brief moment that I might be too critical of this product, until I remembered that I've heard Koss and Sennheiser headphones in this price range that are better-designed and provide superior sound reproduction. This model just doesn't sound any better than the cheap headphones that come with most portable audio systems.
If you are looking for replacement headphones for listening to news or talk radio and you don't want ear buds or a conventional head band, these phones could be a good choice. If you want to enjoy music, avoid them.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
qibo
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Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Yet another Epinions casualty.
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